This won't come as a surprise to most but anyway, I thought I'd have a moan.
Against my advice, my Mum took her TT to a local well known tyre place (with the blue, white and yellow sign) for an MOT. She's been having a complete nightmare of late with my Grandparents and just wanted to get the car sorted - anything for an easy life. Anything but more like
The car failed on snapped rear springs; a common problem for TTs and the headlights needed adjustment. Fair enough, it's 11 years old, so that's pretty good.
So, at this point, she phoned me up in a bit of a state. Firstly, they told her that she couldn't drive the car because it was illegal to do so. A bit of a grey area but obviously one which they turned to their advantage and which they used to panic her in to making an immediate decision.
She asked me about the springs, to which I suggested that she should source the correct springs from Audi and get them fitted, as it's a truly mint example and has never had anything but Audi parts in her ownership. So, she went away and then phoned me back up to say that she was told that they could not fit genuine Audi parts. Alarm bell no.1. They cannot fit THE PARTS THE CAR HAD FROM THE FACTORY. Really :corey:
When she spoke to Audi, they informed her that there were several different springs and that the correct springs must be ordered, based on the paint codes. I tried to explain that it was unlikely that aftermarket springs took this in to account but she was told the usual thing about aftermarket parts being the same and the words 'Audi approved' were used. Now I thought this only applied to parts with 4 rings on them
Alarm bell no.2.
Anyway, she was reassured that they would fit the correct springs and because she just wanted an easy life, she left the car there. I told her explicitly not to but she ignored my sound advice, demanding why and ignoring my brief and accurate reasoning.
So, they fitted some springs, charging the same for the aftermarket springs as the genuine Audi items (!) and around £100 in labour. I could do that job on the drive in less than 2 hours with plenty of tea, so on a ramp, it's well under an hour's job; so they charged pretty much Audi levels of labour too.
When she picked up the car, she was again told some tall story about the Cat needing a special treatment, and was charged an extortionate £20 for some cleaning gunk. The way she relayed the story, she wasn't really given a choice in buying the gunk, as it was already on the invoice when she got there.
So, her cheap MOT turned out to be a bit of a pain but anyway, she took the car away with a year's ticket on and one of the weak spots of the TT addressed for a few years at least.
If the above had resulted in a serviceable car then it's just something to chalk up to experience and never take your business back there again but as it happens, she phoned me up again in a bit of a state, as she'd been out to look at the car and surprise surprise, the rear was sat up high like an off-roader. Great.
So, a bit of research indicates that she has a facelift car and facelift cars came with 20mm lower springs
So it would seem that the wrong springs were in fact not fitted...
When she picked up the car, she took it to a trusted local place to have the tracking set and it was way off and could not be adjuuted to the correct range. The car is OE and has covered 52k with no accidents etc, so it's not like it should be out of spec. The high springs won't help but here's the rub; she was charged £30 extra to have the tracking set by the garage that fitted the springs...
I asked if there was a readout but again, and unsurprisingly, there wasn't. An easy £30 then.
So, she's now left with a car that looks ridiculous, has the incorrect parts, incorrect rear tracking setup and she was charged through the nose for what she has received.
With all the stress in her life at the moment, she is afraid of taking the car back to them, as she doesn't feel that they will take her complaint seriously and that her word will just be dismissed. I've explained that she needs to lodge a complaint to take it any further but that's up to her. I feel very sorry for her and have really had to bite my tongue to avoid the inevitable "I told you so" argument.
It's sad that garages still see a lady in a smart car as an easy way to make money but they do.
Against my advice, my Mum took her TT to a local well known tyre place (with the blue, white and yellow sign) for an MOT. She's been having a complete nightmare of late with my Grandparents and just wanted to get the car sorted - anything for an easy life. Anything but more like
The car failed on snapped rear springs; a common problem for TTs and the headlights needed adjustment. Fair enough, it's 11 years old, so that's pretty good.
So, at this point, she phoned me up in a bit of a state. Firstly, they told her that she couldn't drive the car because it was illegal to do so. A bit of a grey area but obviously one which they turned to their advantage and which they used to panic her in to making an immediate decision.
She asked me about the springs, to which I suggested that she should source the correct springs from Audi and get them fitted, as it's a truly mint example and has never had anything but Audi parts in her ownership. So, she went away and then phoned me back up to say that she was told that they could not fit genuine Audi parts. Alarm bell no.1. They cannot fit THE PARTS THE CAR HAD FROM THE FACTORY. Really :corey:
When she spoke to Audi, they informed her that there were several different springs and that the correct springs must be ordered, based on the paint codes. I tried to explain that it was unlikely that aftermarket springs took this in to account but she was told the usual thing about aftermarket parts being the same and the words 'Audi approved' were used. Now I thought this only applied to parts with 4 rings on them
Alarm bell no.2.Anyway, she was reassured that they would fit the correct springs and because she just wanted an easy life, she left the car there. I told her explicitly not to but she ignored my sound advice, demanding why and ignoring my brief and accurate reasoning.
So, they fitted some springs, charging the same for the aftermarket springs as the genuine Audi items (!) and around £100 in labour. I could do that job on the drive in less than 2 hours with plenty of tea, so on a ramp, it's well under an hour's job; so they charged pretty much Audi levels of labour too.
When she picked up the car, she was again told some tall story about the Cat needing a special treatment, and was charged an extortionate £20 for some cleaning gunk. The way she relayed the story, she wasn't really given a choice in buying the gunk, as it was already on the invoice when she got there.
So, her cheap MOT turned out to be a bit of a pain but anyway, she took the car away with a year's ticket on and one of the weak spots of the TT addressed for a few years at least.
If the above had resulted in a serviceable car then it's just something to chalk up to experience and never take your business back there again but as it happens, she phoned me up again in a bit of a state, as she'd been out to look at the car and surprise surprise, the rear was sat up high like an off-roader. Great.
So, a bit of research indicates that she has a facelift car and facelift cars came with 20mm lower springs
So it would seem that the wrong springs were in fact not fitted...When she picked up the car, she took it to a trusted local place to have the tracking set and it was way off and could not be adjuuted to the correct range. The car is OE and has covered 52k with no accidents etc, so it's not like it should be out of spec. The high springs won't help but here's the rub; she was charged £30 extra to have the tracking set by the garage that fitted the springs...
I asked if there was a readout but again, and unsurprisingly, there wasn't. An easy £30 then.So, she's now left with a car that looks ridiculous, has the incorrect parts, incorrect rear tracking setup and she was charged through the nose for what she has received.
With all the stress in her life at the moment, she is afraid of taking the car back to them, as she doesn't feel that they will take her complaint seriously and that her word will just be dismissed. I've explained that she needs to lodge a complaint to take it any further but that's up to her. I feel very sorry for her and have really had to bite my tongue to avoid the inevitable "I told you so" argument.
It's sad that garages still see a lady in a smart car as an easy way to make money but they do.
and that fitting those OBVIOUSLY incorrect springs is more dangerous than the correct but cracked springs that they claimed was dangerous, the suspension geometry will be way out, and the spring rates of the incorrect springs will not be right which could with current weather conditions cause the cars handling to become unpredictable...
Sounds about right.
They list 2 types of spring on their webcat and the lower, sports ones are available from ECP. Hopefully, the garage will swap out the springs and refund the difference in parts costs.
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